This December, on International Anti-Corruption Day, the members of the World Economic Forum’s Infrastructure and Urban Development Partners community delivered a strong statement on their commitment to fight corruption across the engineering, construction and real estate sector industries....More

New International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS) will be unveiled next month that are aimed at bringing greater consistency and transparency to the global commercial real estate investment market....More

Foreign institutional investors are spending heavily on U.S. assets this year, revealed JLL’s global capital markets experts at the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) fall meeting, currently underway at New York’s Javits Center. In fact, the inflow of foreign capital is so strong that JLL is raising its predictions on foreign investment into the United States for 2014, and is now forecasting nearly $50 billion, up from $38.7 billion in 2013....More

The amount of sustainability data collection at many large global property firms has quadrupled. According to the recently released 2014 GRESB survey, almost 80 percent of the participant firms measure energy use. The survey participants also reported that both carbon emissions and water consumption are down at the firms....More

ASB Real Estate Investments has formed Infomart Data Centers, a national data center operator that rises out of a merger between Dallas Infomart and Fortune Data Centers. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, agreed to buy the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Financial Centre in London for $944 million. TPG Real Estate, the real estate platform of Fort Worth-based TPG private equity firm, has invested $120 million in LifeStorage self-storage facilities. These are among today’s 10 must reads from around the commercial real estate industry....More

There are more than 25 cities in the world today with populations of over 10 million, according to a recent study by the United Nations Population Division, World Economic Forum. Here, we present the top 10, ranked according to total population predicted for 2025 rather than by percentage of growth.

German prosecutors said Monday that they had filed criminal charges against the former chief executive and the former management board of Hypo Real Estate. At least six rival real estate investment firms have expressed interest in buying the property holdings of restaurant and packaged-food giant Bob Evans Farms Inc. Emaar Malls Group, the shopping mall operator based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said Monday that it had raised $1.6 billion in its initial public offering. These are among today’s 10 must reads from around the commercial real estate world....More

The British construction and services company Balfour Beatty has agreed to sell its Parsons Brinckerhoff consulting business to WSP Global for $1.35 billion. Ukraine's ongoing war with pro-Russian separatists and their Moscow benefactors is pushing money out of the region — and into the United States. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is putting 15,000 nonperforming residential loans with an unpaid principal balance of $2.3 billion out to bid. These are among today’s 10 must reads from around the commercial real estate industry....More

Family Dollar has rejected Dollar General’s $8.9 billion offer in favor of Dollar Tree, reports The New York Times. CMBS lending standards start to slip, forcing Wall Street firms to “shop around” for good credit ratings, according to Bloomberg. Sam Zell and former partner Gary Garrabrant are shopping for properties in the same emerging markets, reports the Wall Street Journal. These are among today’s must reads for the commercial real estate industry....More

The current $5.3 billion expansion of the Panama Canal may not be big enough and Panama officials are considering whether to dig a fourth set of locks. Finra is continuing to tack on time to the widely anticipated rule change that would give investors a clearer picture of what it costs to buy shares of nontraded REITs. Citi analyst Rob Buckland has published this diagram of where he thinks we are in the economic cycle and is warning we may be in bubble territory. Many consumers still appear reluctant to open their wallets, according to a mixed batch of retail earnings this week. These are among the 10 must reads for the commercial real estate sector today....More

Health Care REIT will spend as much as $2.3 billion on a deal that could give it more than 100 additional properties in the U.S. and Canada. Clarion Partners, has completed the sale of its 50% interest in a portfolio of nine class A Mexican shopping centers totaling 3.17 million square feet to Frisa, the current joint venture partner. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc unit is a final bidder for a Tokyo office tower in a deal that could fetch about $1.6 billion. These are among today’s 10 must reads from around the commercial real estate sector....More

China’s Dalian Wanda Group wins the bid for a 344,320-sq.-ft. land site in Beverly Hills, Calif., reports Bloomberg. Middle Eastern investors plan to invest more than $180 billion in commercial real estate properties internationally, according to the World Property Channel. Microsoft may soon open its first store in New York, claims the New York Daily News. These are among today’s must reads for the commercial real estate industry....More

Sam Zell is continuing his shakeup of the former CommonWealth REIT by planning to sell the company's Australian portfolio. Office Depot said Tuesday it would close 165 stores during 2014 — up from the 150 estimated earlier this year. Walgreen said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy the remaining 55% of UK-drugstore chain Alliance Boots it doesn’t already own for $15.3 billion, but won’t pursue a tax-reducing inversion structure for the deal. Washington policymakers are bracing for a wave of corporations to renounce their U.S. citizenship over the next few months. These are among the 10 must reads for the commercial real estate sector today....More

Of the 10 largest hotels in the world by room count, it turns out eight are located in Las Vegas, according to research from STR and STR Global, which provide data and benchmarking studies on the hotel industry.